The Journey of Beckett Jude Rupp

Look who has another younger brother! Declan Shay Rupp was born on January 24, 2019 at 9:30am. 20.5 inches, 6 pounds 7 ounces. We are so grateful for our 3 boys…all so unique and special in their own way.

It’s amazing that this incredible journey of life began 6 years ago…today. It’s been another interesting year filled with fear, exhaustion, and pain…but it has also been a year of life, blessing, and healing. We are so grateful for another memorable year with this incredibly special little boy. Thank you God, Family, Friends, Teachers, Pastors, Co-Workers, etc. We are looking forward to many many more. May the best days of our past, be the worst days of our future.

Sorry for the few-day-hiatus…we’ve just been acclimating to home life again. I’ll keep this brief:

We are doing well. Beckett is doing great. It took a few days at home on oxygen to finally see some significant steps of improvement. Last night was the first night I was able to successfully turn off his oxygen while Leah happened to be back at work (I’m sure it made her a little nervous). We tried a few other times and he “failed” (as in, a noticeable drop in his sats). But not only did he hold his numbers last night…they were impressive. It looks like he’s finally turning the corner. We even went to church today on no oxygen. I still brought the portable tank since he had only been off for about 12 hours at that point, but he hasn’t needed it yet. We’re going to send him back to school tomorrow (which he’s really excited about) and hope he adjusts well back into our old rhythm.

As always, we really appreciate the support and encouragement. Soooo many of you have offered words of encouragement, prayer, a helpful hand, and even finances. It’s all so very humbling, and we are so grateful. And we are continually grateful for God’s hand and provision over our son and family. To be honest, it’s been a long six years (almost six years). Sometimes it feels like when we have gotten past all the challenges, a new unforeseen (yet familiar) challenge rears it’s ugly head. But God’s faithfulness and this amazing community of friends and family have consistently surrounded us. As much as I genuinely wouldn’t wish these “challenges” on anyone…ever…the blessing of seeing the best of humanity and God’s love from this perspective is a beautiful and rare gift.

We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. I know we have much to be thankful for and are truly excited to celebrate this next month together, at home, and as a family.

Today was similar to yesterday. Beckett was doing pretty good first thing in the morning and then during breakfast his heart rate shot up again for no apparent reason. As the day wore on his oxygen saturation began to get lower and lower until he was finally increased on his oxygen higher than he has since we’ve been here. So here comes the good news. This evening he has looked the best I’ve seen yet. Goofing around with his dad, laughing and just overall having a good time. He’s gotten videos from school, church and cousins, as well as fun surprises from friends too! We can not express enough how much these mean to him. They make his day and his whole face lights up. His breathing has been very relaxed, and they have been lowering his oxygen back down. They also did an echo and some blood work this afternoon to rule out his heart as a problem and it came back completely normal. Praise the Lord! Here is even better news. As of rounds this morning, we are heading home tomorrow. Now, he does have to go home on oxygen, but at least he gets to come home. They believe that as this virus continues to work out of his system he will work his way off the oxygen. We are hoping that happens by the time he is supposed to go back to school on Monday. It’s going to be a great thanksgiving at home, full of rest, family and our many blessings.